reconstructed upon the principle of its original intention.

In 1825 the general consolidation of the Laws of the Customs was effected by Mr. Hume *, under the favouring auspices of the Board of Trade and Treasury. The difficulty and vastness of this undertaking was only surpassed by its importance. From the reign of the first Edward up to the present times, these laws had accumulated to the enormous number of fifteen hundred: frequently contradictory, and made without reference to each other, they were only understood by the initiated few, and required the devotion of a whole life to their study, at once to comprehend, and to obey them. They were unintelligible to the merchants, while they perplexed and harassed all their proceedings. This chaos of Legislation was compressed by Mr. Hume into Eleven Acts (a sort of Code Napoleon), with an order, a clearness, and a precision whereby even the least talented of our mercantile men are now enabled to consult the laws of the Customs with facility, and to take them with safety for their guide. These effects, upon which for their advantages to commerce Mr. Huskisson several times expatiated with exultation, would alone make this consolidation a most important era in our fiscal policy; but advantage was likewise taken of the

* James Deacon Hume, Esq., then of the Customs, now (1830) of the Board of Trade.

opportunity to introduce into the Laws themselves some memorable changes, in conformity with the spirit of those principles of commercial intercourse, on which the Government had determined to act. Not only were duties of importance considerably reduced, but those on numerous minor articles were lowered. During the war the rates of the Tariff had been so increased, for the single purpose of revenue, that they had become for the most part inapplicable to a state of peace, and required general revision. This revision was regulated by the following principles: - First, Those duties were reduced, the heaviness of which tended to lessen, rather than to increase their total product. Secondly, The duties on raw materials, and on various articles useful in manufactures, were lowered to little more than nominal sums. Thirdly, Protecting duties of extravagant amount were reduced to that point, at which the consumer was fairly entitled to relief, either by the increased industry of the home manufacture, or by access to other sources of supply. lastly, the comforts and the tastes of the publick, and the advantage of their retail suppliers, were consulted by the removal of duties which prevented the introduction, or most unnecessarily abridged, the use of many articles without benefit to any party whatever.

And,

By the system founded on these principles, there has not only been distributed amongst a numerous population a great increase of employment, but its diffusion has been greater in proportion, than its increase. It is also very remarkable, that those trades which have been prominent in complaining of foreign competition have neither suffered more in diminution of profits, nor increased less in extent of business, than those which have been able to hold foreign competition at defiance.

Besides this consolidation of the Customs' Laws which took place in 1825, an Act was passed in the Session of that year, whereby many commercial advantages were conferred on the Colonies, beyond those contained in Mr. Robinson's two acts of 1822; Mr. Huskisson laying down as the fundamental principle on which his alterations were founded—a principle deduced from past experience with respect both to Ireland and to our Colonies-that " so far as the Colonies "themselves were concerned, their prosperity "was cramped and impeded by a system of "exclusion and monopoly; and that whatever "tended to increase the prosperity of the Colonies "could not fail, in the long run, to advance, in "an equal degree, the general interests of the "parent state." By these Acts, not only articles of first necessity, but Goods of all descriptions, with very few exceptions, were allowed to be

imported from all Countries, either in British ships, or in ships of the Country of their production; and the goods of the Colonies were allowed to be exported in any ships to any foreign Country whatever. The only part of the Colonial system which was persevered in, was that which excludes foreign ships from carrying goods from one British place to another; "so that by this "arrangement was preserved the foundation of "our Navigation Laws-all intercourse between "the mother-country and the Colonies, whether "direct or circuitous, and all intercourse of the "Colonies with each other, being considered as a coasting trade to be reserved entirely and absolutely for ourselves."

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The admission of foreign ships, however, was not unconditional: it was made to depend upon reciprocal or equivalent liberality towards our trade and navigation on the part of the countries profiting by the advantages of it; but a power was given to the King in Council to relax the rigour of the Law, if occasion should, in any particular cases, seem to require it. By the same Act the privileges of warehousing were extended to the chief trading Ports of the Colonies; a measure, which was well adapted to promote the creation of entrepôts in those places, for the general barter trade of that quarter of the Globe. Independently of all these measures of internal legislation, Treaties of Commerce, founded on

the principles of reciprocity, were negotiated with Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, the Hanse Towns, three of the new States of Spanish America, and lastly with France. In the case of Prussia, the Power with whom the first of these Treaties was made, it may be said, that it was fairly forced upon this country. It certainly was not the wish of our Government unnecessarily to, stir the question.. But "the Prussian Ship-owners were "all going to ruin," and the Prussian Government very wisely resolved not to give to British ships, privileges which the British Government denied to Prussian ships. When once foreign Powers began to adopt that course, against which we could not justly remonstrate, it has been already shewn that the only safe and wise way was to meet it with concession. Prussia having therefore thus attained her object, to have manifested any unwillingness to treat other Powers on the same footing, would have been inconsistent with the principle of our navigation law, which, acting upon the principle "divide et impera," was more anxious for an equal distribution of foreign shipping, than for its diminution.

To all these changes, little or no opposition was offered during their progress through the Legislature. The members who spoke upon the subject, for the most part expressed themselves in terms of high commendation. It was not till after the occurrence of the commercial crisis